So after my perfect, not so little baby arrived with the fireworks of the 4th of July, we had 2 peaceful days in the hospital (well, as peaceful as possible with all the checking in they do). I had everything packed and ready to go home on the night of the 6th, I was just waiting for Ryan to come pick us up since he had to work that day, when the pediatrician came in and said that Garrett needed to go to the NICU for 48 hours! As she was telling me the disheartening news, the tears started welling up in my eyes. I was so disappointed. I had just talked to my Mom and said we would be home within an hour- Justin had made me a sign and a cake and was all excited for me and "baby brudder" to come home. Thinking of his disappointment just made the tears start to overflow. Just then, Ryan came in the room and asked what was wrong. I explained the situation and just kept crying for a while. Apparently, the blood sample that was taken at birth (because I had gotten a fever during delivery) had some sort of growth. They didn't know if it was bacterial or just a harmless contaminant that had gotten in the sample, but either way, he had to go to the NICU to receive precautionary antibiotics for a full 48 hours until another sample could complete the cycle and show positive signs of an infection or be clear, meaning it was just a contaminant in the initial sample. The hospital has boarder rooms for situations like ours so that I could continue to stay at the hospital (free of charge, actually!) while my precious baby was in the NICU. We moved our stuff to the boarder room and took Garrett down to the NICU. It broke my heart and brought back so many emotions of seeing Justin in the NICU when he was first born. After a few hours of asking "why is this happening? why do we have to go through this? why can't I just have a happy, easy hospital experience?" we tried to be optimistic and be grateful that at least we had family to take care of Justin and at least I couple continue to be at the hospital to breast feed Garrett and be with him for every moment he was awake.
Auntie Carly and Uncle Luke came up for the weekend, and even though we weren't home as planned, they stayed with my parents at our house, played with Justin, and visited the hospital to see the new nephew. I was glad that we were still able to take him out and hold him. Seeing my 10 pound+ baby in the NICU compared to all the other babies, it was obvious that he didn't belong there!
Justin became a regular around the hospital. The security guard said he was going to miss him when he was leaving for the last time. Justin enjoyed getting lollipops and seeing the big floor cleaning machine every time he came. He wasn't able to see Garrett, you had to be at least 16 to go into the NICU, but we kept talking about him and hoping that it wasn't too confusing for him.
We were on pins and needles Sunday night waiting for the full 48 hours to be over and for the lab results to come back. The Dr. called us down, and to our delight, it was a false alarm. The original sample taken at birth must have gotten a contaminant in it because the second sample came back completely clean. HOORAY! Aside from being jaundiced, he was perfectly healthy. We couldn't get out of the hospital fast enough. Garrett was too big for the outfit I had bought him to come home in, so he wore a little jumper from when Justin was a baby.
Even though it was well past Justin's bed time by the time we got home Sunday night, Justin was wide awake waiting for Mommy and Baby Brudder Darrett! His sign was up, and he was very excited to get to eat the welcome home cake! Justin was very sweet when he saw Garrett and wanted to share his toys and tell him about everything he was going to teach him. It was a great homecoming, even if it was a couple days later than expected.
No comments:
Post a Comment